Apparatus for dispensing packaged goods



March 15, 1966 G. c. Kr-:AN

APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING PACKAGED GOODS' Filed Aug. 16, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 March 15, 1966 G. c. KEAN 3,240,918

APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING PACKAGED GOODS' Filed Aug. 16, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ADD f L I o 63| I ,o G55 IST 2ND 3RD STAGE STAGE STAGE SUBTRACT- BINARY o STAGE 0 l Ano uBTRAcT M I r MONOSTABLE MONOS TABLE 0 l 0 l M.S.I. M.S.2.

SUBTRACT OUT ADD ou? United States Patent O 3,240,918 APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING PACKAGED GOODS George Crnickshank Kean, Greenford, England, assignor to Rotax Limited, Willesden, London, England Filed Aug. 16, 1962, Ser. No. 217,382 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Nov. 23, 1961,

2 Claims. (Cl. 23S-92) In British Patent No. 979,581 we have described apparatus for delivering to a conveyor an order consisting of a plurality of diterent packages from chutes 4in accordanc with the setting of a plurality of switching devices. The present invention is concerned with the delivery of an order to a predetermined station. The invention is particularly designed for use with apparatus as described in our earlier application, but may also be employed with other apparatus for delivery packages.

Apparatus in accordance with the invention comprises gate means arranged in the path of movement of packages moving along a conveyor, and movable between la plu rality of positions in which packages are delivered to a plurality of stations respectively, a plurality of memory units for counting the number of .packages in successive orders respectively and for registering the station to which it is desired, to transport the order in accordance with the setting of a switching device, and means operable after an order has passed the gate means -for resetting the Igate means in accordance with the reading of the memory corresponding to the next order on the conveyor.

An example of the invention is illustrated in the drawings accompanying the provisional specification, -in which FIGURE vl is a block, diagram and FIGURES 2 and 3 respectively are detaailed circuits of parts of FIGURE 1. The example illustrated is intended for use particularly with apparatus as described in British Patent No. 979,581 in which there is described apparatus -for delivering Predetermined numbers of each of a plurality of packages of dilerent goods from store racks onto a conveyor in accordance with the reading on a punched card. In FIGURE l the store racks and conveyor are shown at 11 and 12 respectively, whilst the electrical circuitry 'for controlling the delivery of each order to the conveyor is indicated at 13,.

The present apparatus is designed to deliver each order` to one of two destinations in accordance with a reading on the punched card which Was inserted in the control circuit 13 tocause the order to be delivered. It will be appreciated that although only two' possible routes are illustrated itis possible to provide more routes, with suitable modilications to the apparatus. The apparat-us shown is designed to enable a maximum of three orders to be present on theconveyor 12 at any onetime. For this purpose three count memory stores 14, 15, 16 are provided, these stores being in operation successively -under the control of a memory selector S1. The stores 14, 15, 16 are reversible binary counters, and are described more fully with reference to FIGURE 2. In addition, three gate memory stores are provided, these stores serving to determine the route to be taken by -an order. The gate memory stores are operated in synchonism with the stores 14, 15, 16 by means of a store sclector S2, and are constituted by three pairs of bistable circuits 17, 18; 19, 20, and 21, 22 with associated AND gates G15, G16, G21, G22; G17, G18, G23, G24; and G19, G20, G25, G26 respectively.

At the commencement of operation the selectors S1, S2 are automatically set to energise the lines 1 only. When an order is delivered onto the conveyor 12, switches ice associated with chutes containing the articles are operated toproduce a number of pulses corresponding to the number of articles in the particular order. These pulses are fed through a pulse separator 23 (to be described) to a reversible binary counter 24, and are also fed through a second similar pulse separator 27 to three AND gates G2, G4, G6 which receive in addition inputs from the lines 1, 2, 3. Since only the line 1 is energised, the pulses will be fed into the store 14.

As soon as .an order is fed onto the conveyor 12, it starts to pass a photocell P1 which provides pulses which are fed to the counter 24 to operate the counter in the reverse direction. When the counter 24 reaches its zero reading, a pulse is fed through an AND gate G13 to the memory selector S1, stepping the latter one position so that the line 2 is now energised and the next order is fed into the store 15. Similarly a third order will be fed into the store 16.

When the stores 14, 15, 16 are full, three signals are fed to an AND gate G14, which then produces an output Which is fed thorugh an OR gate R1 to the circuit 13, and serves to prevent further operation of the circuit 13 until one of the stores 14, 15, 16 is empty, The gate R1 also receives a signal from the gate G13, so that delivery of a new order cannot be started until the previous order has passed the photocell P1.

The Igate G13 also receives a signal from the circuit 13 only when an order is completed, thereby preventing false operation of the apparatus in the event of a chute being empty.

Each punched card has a hole therein in one of two positions depending upon the route to be taken by the order on the punched card. The circuit 13 thus provides a signal either to the AND gates G15, G17, G19, or to the gate G21, G23, G25. When the store 14 is being filled, only the gates G15, G21 are open (the lgate G10 being normally open), and so one or other of the bistables 17, 18 is switched to its alternative state. Since the line 1 of the selector S2 is energized, one or other of the gates G16, G22 will now produce an output t0 energise one 0f a pair of solenoids 25, 26 which operate a gate in the path of movement of goodsalon-g the conveyor 12. p

When the vsecond and third orders are fed onto the conveyor, one of each pair of bistables 19, 20; 21, 22 will be operated, but this will not affect the solenoids 25, 26 Since only the line 1 of the selector S2 is energized and hence G18, G24,G20, G26 are inhibited.

As the goods of the rst order are routed through the gate in the appropriate direction they pass a second photocell P2 which feeds pulses through a pulse separator 27 to AND gates G1, G3, G5 which can produce pulses for operating the stores 14, 15, 16 in the opposite manner from the pulses Ifrom the gates G2, G4, G6. Since the rst order is being counted, only'the gate G1 is open. When the first order has passed the photocell P2, the reading of the storev 14 will be zero, and at this point the store 14 produces an output which is fed through a normally open gate G7 and an OR gate R2 to the selector S2, causing the latter to be stepped so that the l-ine 2 is energised. One of the gates G18, G24 now produces an output to re-set the appropriate solenoid 25, 26. This cycle of operations then continues in the manner described, the selector S2 being stepped as successive orders pass the photocell P2.

In the event of an order extending throughout the length of lthe conveyor and a chute -being empty, it is possible for one of the stores 14, 15, 16 to produce an output to step the selector S2 before an order has passed the photocell P2. In order to avoid .this the stores 14, 15, 16 are connected to the selector S2 through gates G7, G8, G9 respectively which receive signals from the lines 1, 2, 3 of the selector S1. The arrangement yis such that the gates G7, G8, G9 are closed when the lines 1, 2, 3 of the selector S1 are energised respectively, thereby preventing stepping of the .selector S2 until a complete order has passed the photocell P2. One input to the gates G7, G8, G9 is provided by the outputs of normally open gates G10, G11, G12 respectively. Those gates are closed when the stores 14, 15, 16 are all full, and are necessary to allow stepping of the selector S2 under these conditions. The gates G10, G11 and G12 also prevent inadver-tent operation of the gate memory stores.

The preferred form of the counter 24 and the stores 14, 15, 16 is shown in FIGURE 2. Pulses of one polarity are fed to the first stage and to AND gates G31, G33. Each stage is a bistable circuit, and the gates G31, G33 only pass a pulse to the next stage when the previous stage changes from a 1 to a 0 configuration. Similarly, pulses of the opposite polarity are fed to gates G32, G34 and to the first stage. The gates G32, G34 pass a pulse to the next stage only when the rst stage changes from a to a 1 configuration. Thus, the pulses of opposite polarity effect adding and subtracting respectively.

The purpose of the pulse separators 23, 27 is to prevent two pulses of opposite polarity from arriving at the counter 24 or store 14, 1S, 16 substantially s-imultaneously, since in such a contingency one pulse may have no effect due to the finite operating time of the Ibistable circuits. The preferred form of pulse separator, which forms the subject matter of copending application No. 217,384 of even date, now abandoned, is shown in FIGURE 3.

' Referring to FIGURE 3, the pulses of opposite polarity, i.e. the ADD and SUBTRACTl pulses,vare fed to two bistable circuits BSI, BSZ which are normally in the 01 conguration. A third bistable circuit` BSS isfed from a 50 c.s. supply.

When a pulse is applied to the ADD line,'thebistable BS1 is switched to its 1 0 configuration, and athree-way AND gate G41 receives a 0 from both the bistable BSl and a monostable circuit MS2. Thus, when the bistable BS3 is switched to the appropriate sta-te, the gate G41 produces an output which operates a monostable circuit MS1 to provide an output from the circuit, and also to inhibit a second three-way AND gate G42 so that the monostable MS2 cannot be switched. When the monostable MS1 reverts to its stable state, it provides a pulse which resets the bistable B.S.1. l

A similar sequence of events takes place on receipt of a SUBTRACT pulse, but if two pulses are received simultaneously they will be separated in time by the output from the bistable BS3, which ensures that only one of the gates G41, G42 can conduct at any time.

It will be appreciated that a gate for controlling more than two routes may be provided. Moreover, the routes controlled by a two-way gate may themselves be divided by further two-way gates. In this case the readings of the memory units controlling the rst gate maybe transferred to other memory units for operating the other gates.

It will be understood that the punched card reader constitutes a plurality of switching devices the states of which are determined by the positions of the holes in the punched cards. However, the switching devices could be constituted by other means such, for example, as on-oi switches. In this case one or more switches would determine the destination of an order. The switches could A' be re-set for a second order as soon as thevfirst orderV has passed the photocell P1.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. Apparatus for delivering to a predetermined station an order consisting of predetermined numbers of packages, comprising gate means arranged in the path of movement of packages moving along a conveyor and movable between a plurality of positions in which packages are delivered to a plurality of stations respectively, a plurality of reversible counters, a first series of input gates for controlling the input of pulses to the counters respectively to operate the counters in one direction, a second series of input gates for controlling the input of pulses to the counters respectively to operate them in the opposite direction, a plurality of memory stores for storing information representing the required destination of successive orders as determined by the setting of a switching device, input gates for controlling input to the memory stores respectively, output gates for controlling the outputs from the memory stores respectively, means operable by the outputs from the memory stores respectively for setting the gate means, a first selector for opening in turn one gate of the rst series and the input gate of the corresponding memory store sothat the memory store is set in vaccordance with the required destination of an order as determined by the switching device, a second selector for opening in turn one gate of the second series and the output gate of the corresponding memory store, means for counting into the operative reversible counter a number of signals representing the number of packages in an order passing a point on the conveyor in advance of the gate means and then stepping the first selector'so that the next order is counted into the next reversible counter and the corresponding memory store is set in accordance with therrequired destination of the order, means for counting the number of packages in an order passing through the gate means into the reversible counter lpreviously used for that order, whereby the setting of the reversible counter becomes zero, and means operable when the setting of a reversible counter becomes zero for `stepping the second selector, so that the gate means is re-set.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which stepping of the first -selector is effected when the reading of a further reversible counter, which is operated in opposite directions when packages are delivered to the conveyor and when packages pass said point on the conveyor respectively, becomes zero.

References Cited by Athe Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,523,517 8/1950 Potter 23S-98 2,728,466 12/ 1955 Postlewaite et al 214-11 3,011,621 12/1961 Byrnes et al. 198-78 3,027,022 3/1962 Perar 214-11 3,103,989 8/1963 Bunzl 186-1 3,141,540 7/ 1964 Burkhardt 209-72 3,158,836 11/1964 McCauley 340-51 MALCOLM A. MORRISON, Primary Examiner. J. E. MILLER, Assistant Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING TO A PREDETERMINED STATION AN ORDER CONSISTING OF PREDETERMINED NUMBERS OF PACKAGES, COMPRISING GATE MEANS ARRANGED IN THE PATH OF MOVEMENT OF PACKAGES MOVING ALONG A CONVEYOR AND MOVABLE BETWEEN A PLURALITY OF POSITIONS IN WHICH PACKAGES ARE DELIVERED TO A PLURALITY OF STATIONS RESPECTIVELY, A PLURALITY OF REVERSIBLE COUNTERS, A FIRST SERIES OF INPUT GATES FOR CONTROLLING THE INPUT OF PULSES TO THE COUNTERS RESPECTIVELY TO OPERATE THE COUNTERS IN ONE DIRECTION, A SECOND SERIES OF INPUT GATES FOR CONTROLLING THE INPUT OF PULSES TO THE COUNTERS RESPECTIVELY TO OPERATE THEM IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION, A PLURALITY OF MEMORY STORES FOR STORING INFORMATION REPRESENTING THE REQUIRED DESTINATION OF SUCCESSIVE ORDERS AS DETERMINED BY THE SETTING OF A SWITCHING DEVICE, INPUT GATES FOR CONTROLLING INPUT TO THE MEMORY STORES RESPECTIVELY, OUTPUT GAGES FOR CONTROLLING THE OUTPUTS FROM THE MEMORY STORES RESPECTIVELY, MEANS OPERABLE BY THE OUTPUTS FORM THE MEMORY STORES RESPECTIVELY FOR SETTING THE GATE MEANS, A FIRST SELECTOR FOR OPENING IN TURN ONE GATE OF THE FIRST SERIES AND THE INPUT GATE OF THE CORRESPONDING MEMORY STORE SO THAT THE MEMORY STORE IS SET IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUIRED DESTINATION OF AN ORDER AS DETERMINED BY THE SWITCHING DEVICE, A SECOND SELECTOR FOR OPENING IN TURN ONE GATE OF THE SECOND SERIES AND THE OUTPUT GATES OF THE CORRESPONDING MEMORY STORE, MEANS FOR COUNTING INTO THE OPERATIVE REVERSIBLE COUNTER A NUMBER OF SIGNALS REPRESENTING THE NUMBER OF PACKAGES IN AN ORDER PASSING A POINT ON THE CONVEYOR IN ADVANCE OF THE GATE MEANS AND THEN STEPPING THE FIRST SELECTOR SO THAT THE NEXT ORDER IS COUNTED INTO THE NEXT REVERSIBLE COUNTER AND THE CORRESPONDING MEMORY STORE IS SET IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUIRED DESTINATION OF THE ORDER, MEANS FOR COUNTING THE NUMBER OF PACKAGES IN AN ORDER PASSING THROUGH THE GATE MEANS INTO THE REVERSIBLE COUNTER PREVIOUSLY USED FOR THAT ORDER, WHEREBY THE SETTING OF THE REVERSIBLE COUNTER BECOMES ZERO, AND MEANS OPERABLE WHEN THE SETTING OF A REVERSIBLE COUNTER BECOMES ZERO FOR STEPPING THE SECOND SELECTOR, SO THAT THE GATE MEANS IS RE-SET. 